Ginny MacColl, an actress and former Broadway dancer, has set a Guinness World Record as the oldest female competitive ninja athlete, featured in their latest book “Guinness World Records 2024,” now on shelves.
MacColl, who turns 72 next month, began her journey a little over seven years ago while she was battling osteopenia, a precursor to osteoporosis. Her doctor advised her to begin weight training.
“I didn’t have upper body strength and I hadn’t danced in 30 years,” MacColl, who lives in North Carolina, told The Post.
“My goal was five pull-ups. I’m very goal oriented, so I wanted to make an attainable goal and I thought that might be. But it took me an entire year to get one.”
Though, in no more than two years, she not only reversed the effects of the condition but found a new passion in her golden years.
By the time she turned 65, MacColl got to a level where she felt ready to enter smaller ninja competitions before taking on the highly-coveted “American Ninja Warrior” — her daughter Jessie Graff is a competition veteran.
“I fell early on the first obstacle was just very depressing. I thought I let everybody down and all the fears of doing this came to life,” she said.
“My daughter said, ‘One fall shouldn’t define you, look how far you’ve come.’ It was true, I had gotten much stronger, and able to do so many things. My confidence had grown, I enjoyed doing ninja and competitions.”
MacColl debuted on “American Ninja Warrior” in 2017 and broke several records. She’s still going strong in 2023 and has been making returns on the show among other major competitions.
In fact, MacColl said Graff’s support and intense training helped her get started seven years ago.
“I saw that she had this tremendous grace and strength and power, confidence. She was literally showing little girls, that it was cool to be strong,” MacColl said.
“But not only little girls, sut she also inspired the big ones like me. I looked at that and I went, ‘I want to get strong.'”
In addition to being the oldest ninja competitor at 70 years and 90 days old, MacColl and Graff also hold world records for the most consecutive tandem pull ups for females with 14.
They also own the title for the greatest distance traversed on crossing hanging rings for a synchronized team of to at 144 feet.
“To do these things together, is the most fabulous aspect of it bonded us even closer. I mean, we have all sorts of fun,” MacColl said. “She’s kind of excited to give us all these little goals…She’s been the most encouraging person you could ever hope for.”
Now featured as one of the 2,638 record-holders in the 2024 edition of the Guinness World Records, MacColl hopes to motivate others her own age.
“From the seven years, people have followed me in that time and they have been inspired by the fact that you can do this as you get older and that you can get stronger. It in turn has inspired me to keep going,” she said.
Nowadays, MacColl acts, dabbles in stunt work and is a competitive swimmer in addition to ninja work. She’s currently focusing on an obstacle called the “vertical limit.”
“That is the hardest thing in the world. To describe it, it’s sort of like a cliffhanger where you’re hanging by your fingers,” she explained. “But this time, you don’t have anything on the other side of the board.”
Nevertheless, a new challenge simply means a new adventure for this champion.
“You never know what you’re going to end up doing when you’re in retirement,” MacColl said. “I would never ever thought I’d be doing so much ninja work but I love it. I keep wanting to improve get stronger.”